TikTok is a video sharing social media platform that features everything from the latest dance trends to education lessons you wouldn’t have learned in school.
Like many social media apps, Black people are the heart and soul of the most engaging content – but unfortunately their work is being gentrified and stolen! Fed up, Black Tik Tok stars decided to wield their power in the best way they could. How?
A boycott! Black TikTok creators decided to abstain from generating new content because it KEEPS GETTING STOLEN by white creators.
Black creatives are the blueprint – but where are their deals? Their checks? The guest appearances? Meanwhile, white creators are booked and busy.
TikTok copycats like Addison Rae and Charli D’amelio appeared on the Jimmy Fallon show, where they taught basic versions of popular dances made by Black people. This is colonization at its finest.
Black ideas are making non-Black people rich. While social media is fun, it’s also a modern way of making money. But like many other areas of the economy, Black people are being exploited, and money is being made – just not by us.
Every social media app, trend, and even the core of U.S. culture and economy are built off of our labor and creativity. These institutions cannot function without us and we have to recognize it.
Like the boycotting TikTok creators, we can use our collective power to have our faces and innovations represent our communities. We don’t do free labor!